


Not The Same

by solnishka



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Carol Knows, Daryl Needs a Hug, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, I'm Supposed To Be Sleeping, Kissing, M/M, My first fic, Sad, Sad with a Happy Ending, because she just Knows, but only for a little, every time you leave a comment Negan gets kicked in the dick with a steel toed boot, every time you leave kudos Negan gets kicked in the dick, goddamn he really does need a hug, negan aftermath, someone hug him immediately, this is canon until it isn't, which is very early on lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-08
Updated: 2016-11-27
Packaged: 2018-08-29 19:56:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8503315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solnishka/pseuds/solnishka
Summary: Daryl comes back home after being with Negan for a long time, and struggles with a few things. Rick is there for him.





	1. Gonna Be You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first fic!! Criticize the hell out of this, please and thanks. I need all the help I can get. Thanks for reading! 
> 
> All mistakes are mine.

**I.**

If fucking with people was an olympic sport, Negan would be a twenty-three time gold medalist. Everything he’s ever done--from Rick’s first meeting with the Saviors to right now--has been a prime example of just how much fun he has ruining lives, taking lives, running lives, creating tension and confusion and anxiety.

After he killed Abraham and Glenn, Negan had to break Rick, so he used Carl. When Negan needed Rick to stay broken, he took Daryl. Threw him in a van with his own bow pointed at his head and sent him away. 

It was a long time before Rick had time to think about him, to miss him. They had to get to Hilltop. They had to get Maggie to safety. He carried the body of the man who’d saved his life all those years ago into the RV and drove. His mind was blank. He was too shocked to think. Almost too shocked to breathe. But he was alone and that was what he thought he needed then. 

As he drove, he began to hear Glenn’s last words on repeat, then saw Abraham’s lifeless body, and then he saw everything all over again and he pulled over and blared the horn until every damned walker in earshot was on their way to him because for a few seconds he didn’t care if he lived or died. He snapped out of it soon enough. He thought of Carl and Judith. It’d be a cruel thing, leaving them in this world. He thought of Abraham and Glenn. They’d just died for Maggie and the rest of Alexandria and he’d be damned if he wasn’t alive to make their deaths mean something. 

He made it to Hilltop soon. Maggie was sick. She would be for a while. But she and her baby, they’d be alright. A day later, Rick and the others leave Maggie at Hilltop and return to Alexandria to tell everyone what had happened. What could happen.

He didn’t go into details when the people at Alexandria asked him why two of their people were dead and one was missing. He left it at, “The things I saw this man do... he’s evil. I’m not in charge anymore. Negan is.” Aaron began to explain the trade deal, and Rick went to the house and laid down and tried to sleep. No sleep came. He cried as he laid in the dark, cried for Abraham, cried for Glenn, cried for Maggie, cried for Carl, cried for Daryl. 

His heart turned cold when he thought about Daryl. It wasn’t out of hatred or blame, no, it was out of fear of what the Saviors could be doing to him. He’d be alive. He had to be alive because Negan said that that was how it was gonna be. Daryl was insurance, so he was alive. But were they hurting him? Was he safe?

Of course he wasn’t safe. Stupid question. 

There was one thing Rick was certain of. He knew damn well Daryl was blaming himself for Glenn’s death and he wished for nothing more then to be able to tell him not to do that to himself but he couldn’t, and that hurt more than he would have liked to admit.

The first offering came, and Rick came face to face with Negan again. The anger and hatred he felt when he saw that man were damn near ferocious. But what terrified Rick was the fact that he had accepted that this was how things were, that he wasn’t going to fight back. He was a strong man, but not when it came to Negan. 

Deep down, Rick had been hoping that Negan would let Daryl come home, but he’d always known that was foolish. Rick had asked one time if he could at least know if Daryl was hurt and wound up covered in blood with his eyes swollen shut because of it. He hasn’t asked anything of Negan since. The first time Rick saw Daryl after that night in the clearing was three days after that night in the clearing. He looked empty, somehow, and Rick couldn’t even ask to talk to him. Negan saw the looks on both their faces and had a hell of a time laughing at them. “So fucking sad,” he said. “Damn near pathetic. Can’t even nod your head at this asshole, can you, Dixon? Though I can’t tell if that’s because I... well, that’s a story for another time, I guess. And, Jesus, Rick. I knew our one-on-one meetings would be fun, but, hell, this is even better. Hey, just be glad I didn’t take the fucking kid. ”

Negan started bring Daryl along to every offering. It went like that for six months. Six months of seeing Daryl but not being able to help him. 

But then Negan stopped bringing him, and that was a hundred times worse. 

And then Rick woke up to Aaron telling him that Negan had cut off Daryl’s arm below the elbow because Alexandria didn't get enough vegetables on time for the offering. He did it by the lake, right in front of twenty people he'd called upon to “enjoy the show”. 

It wasn't a clean amputation. Nobody saw him get bandaged up. Nobody knew if he was alive. The Saviors just dragged him into the back of another truck and drove off. Negan had Aaron pick Daryl’s arm up and leave it on Rick’s doorstep. 

“I'm a man of my word,” Negan had said, and then he left. 

It's been over two years since then. Everyone but Rick and Carol think he’s dead. Carl held on the longest out of the rest of them, but after 18 months, he knew the chances of ever seeing Daryl again were slim. 

Somehow, Rick and Carol never gave up hope. Sometimes they talked about him when no one else was around. Other times talking about him was too much. Sometimes they talked about their best memories with him. The cherokee rose, his stubbornness, the food truck and Jesus, the music in the car. The small things he did that made him Daryl. Other times they talked about the heavy stuff. They always left those talks feeling colder than they did when they started.

One night, Rick asked if she loved him. 

“Yeah,” was her matter-of-fact reply.

“I knew it,” Rick said. 

“Well, not like that. I love him like a brother. And besides, I’m not his type.”

“Ah.”

“Do you love him?”

Rick couldn’t bring himself to answer at first. He should’ve been able to. He and Carol, they worked like this now. They told each other things. 

“Rick?”

“Yeah.”

“I asked you if you love him.”

“Course I do. Same as you.”

Rick couldn’t make it out in the darkness, but Carol smirked and raised an eyebrow. “We’ll see him again,” she said.

Seven hundred days had passed since the certainty of Daryl being alive ceased to exist. Seven hundred days had passed since Alexandria messed up an offering ever so slightly and ended up with Daryl’s left hand on Rick’s doorstep. But as of yesterday, Negan is dead. Dwight is locked up in Alexandria, and he knows where Daryl got left behind.

\----------------

Rick and Carol pack a bag full of meds and go to Bethesda. Dwight told them of a house there, in a neighborhood on the east side of the town. He said Negan told him to get him off their base on the night before the Saviors’ reign ended, so he took him there. He said he was tied to a chair in the kitchen, sick as hell and pissing his pants. 

Rick and Carol find the house Dwight and Simon described. As promised, Daryl’s there. Rick goes to him and cuts away the rope around his arms and legs. Daryl doesn’t move for a moment, but he stirs when Rick grasps him by the arms.

“Rick?” he asks in disbelief, eyes barely open. He’s bloody and dirty and bruised, but by some miracle, he’s alive.

“Hey. Yeah, it’s me. Carol’s here, too. You're alright.”

“Carol.”

“Hey,” she says with a soft smile. “You okay?”

“Fever.”

“You’ve got a fever?”

“Mmm.”

Rick presses a hand to Daryl’s forehead and goddamn, Simon was right. He’s sick as hell. “Alright, Carol’s got some medicine here. She’s gonna give it to you on the way back, okay? Can you get up?”

Daryl pushes Rick back a little, then stands up and takes a few shaky steps, then his legs go out and he ends up with his ass on the ground. “Guess ‘s not happening,” he says.

Carol walks over and puts her shoulder under his arm and motions for Rick to do the same, and they carry Daryl into the car together. Carol gives him some medicine and they get on the road back to Alexandria. Daryl goes to sleep fifteen minutes in, and somewhere along the way, he puts his head on Rick’s shoulder.

Carol looks at them in the rearview and smiles. Rick looks back and quietly says, “It’s not the same.”

“Hm?”

“You asked if I loved him. I said I did, same as you. But it’s not the same.”

Carol laughs. “I know.” Rick decides not to ask questions.

They get back to Alexandria, and Daryl finds the strength to walk through those gates and all the way to one of the showers in Rick’s house. He sits, washing the last two years off of him, struggling to believe that any of this is real, that’s it’s not some fever dream. But he remembers the feeling of Rick touching his head, and that grounds him.

\-----------------

It’s early in the morning, and Daryl hasn't slept. His fever went down a while ago, thanks to the slightly excessive amounts of drugs from Carol. He goes into the kitchen and sits on the floor with his back against the oven, staring at the tiles illuminated by the moonlight. His heart is beating fast. He’s still terrified of something. He tells himself that he’s safe, that Negan and his men are dead, that Rick’s under the same roof. Nothing helps.

He hears Rick coming down the stairs; he can tell by the sound of his footsteps. Rick looks cautiously around the corner and sees Daryl staring at the ground and asks, “Couldn’t sleep?”

“Nah.”

Rick sits down next to him. “Are you okay?” he asks. 

“Are you?”

“Daryl-”

“Never got to ask.”

“Whether I’m okay or not doesn’t matter right now. You gotta know that.”

Daryl shrugs, then says, “Gotta get outside.”

Rick nods as Daryl gets up.

“You comin’?”

“You want me to?”

And that’s how they find themselves sitting in the grass by lake at three in the morning. It's a clear night, and Rick’s glad for it, because he suspects that this is the first time Daryl’s been safe enough to be able to appreciate something like this in a long time.

“You're going to have to talk at some point,” Rick says. 

“‘Bout what?”

“If you're okay. You don't have to tell me now. Hell, you don't have to tell me.”

“‘S gonna be you, man,” Daryl says. 

Rick takes a swig of Jack and passes the bottle to Daryl. “I'm glad you’re here.”

Daryl says, “Me too,” and then lays back on the grass. He feels better now. Maybe it's the quiet. Maybe it's the sound of the water in the lake. Or maybe it's that Rick is next to him. Before he shuts his eyes, Daryl says, “Watch out for me.” 

“I will.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you thought! I'll write a second chapter asap :)
> 
> you can find me @ twdfuckyeah on tumblr dot hell. Just made that account tonight because I'm always down to cry about the walking dead.
> 
> edit: thanks so much to everyone who's reading this, leaving kudos, commenting, etc. You guys are awesome.


	2. West Towards Columbus

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Sorry I'm a day late on updating this (trying to get a chapter posted every Tuesday). Again, please leave comments if you find something that you think should be changed.

**II.**

 

Daryl’s been back for two months now. He’s still getting used to living in Alexandria again. Readjusting is harder than he thought it would be. The food’s too rich, the people are too kind, and his bed is too soft. He dreams nasty, terrible things and wakes up crying in a cold sweat more often than not.

He spends most of his time outside the walls. He hunts when he can but usually just sits alone in the silence of the woods. It makes him feel better, the solitude of the place. He doesn’t have to worry about people or Alexandria or anything, really. Rick tried to stop him from going out alone at first but Daryl knows how to handle himself, same as he always has.  

Rick and Daryl going to the lake on the nights when one of them can’t sleep has become a regular thing. They never say too much to each other, they just sit and look up at the sky. Rick realizes that the stars always seem a little bit more beautiful when Daryl’s around.

Daryl still hasn’t said a single word about what had happened to him when he was with Negan. Rick and damn near everyone else wishes he wouldn’t internalize it so much, but no one is planning on pressing him. Everyone knows how he works.  

When Daryl isn’t on his own, he’s with Rick or Carl or Judith. He stays with Rick while he’s on watch sometimes. He teaches Carl how to use his crossbow since it’s not of any use to him anymore. When Rick asks him to watch Judith, he does it gladly.

One day, Rick finds Daryl playing with her on the floor of Rick’s bedroom. He’s smiling. Rick stands still in the doorway, hoping that Daryl won’t notice him for a little while longer. He wants the moment to last.

When Daryl finally notices Rick, he says, “You’re smilin’ like a damn idiot.”

“So were you,” Rick says.

“Nah.”

Rick shrugs. “She grew up while you were gone.”

“I know.”

It’s subtle, but Rick picks up on a heaviness in Daryl’s tone. “Daryl, is somethin’ bothering you?”

“‘S just... like ya said, I missed a lot, ya know? And I know she ain’t my kid, but-”

“She is.” Rick says it without thinking. “Close enough.”

Daryl stares at the carpet for a few moments, clearly uncomfortable, then he gets up. “You got her for the rest of the day?” he asks.

“Sure,” Rick says. “I’ve got her. Be safe.”

“Always am.”

\-----------------

Daryl doesn’t come back that night. Rick worries for a while, but remembers how Daryl would do this sometimes before Negan--just go off the grid for a few days at a time and come back with food or supplies. It’s no different now. So Rick goes to sleep and rests easy.

The same thing can’t be said for Daryl, who spends his night in a gas station just outside of Alexandria. This is the farthest he’s gone from the safe zone since he came back, and it makes him uneasy. That on top of everything else he has on his mind proves to be too much to get any rest at all.

He’s had nightmares nearly every night this week. He hates that he can’t sleep anymore without waking up with heart beating in his throat from the fear. He thanks god that he doesn’t wake up screaming instead because it’d wake Rick and Carl and Judith up and if he was any more of a burden on them than he already is he’d find it hard to live with himself.

There's also the matter of Rick. Rick, who says that Judith is close enough to being his kid. Rick who stays next to him on the nights he can't go to sleep and makes sure he eats well and takes care of himself. Rick caring so goddamn much about him that it makes Daryl sick to his stomach. It's not Rick's fault, of course, but can't he see? Can't he see that Daryl doesn't deserve that kind of care? Can't he tell that Daryl is not what he used to be? He's done a lot of shit he hasn't even told Rick or anyone else about yet.  Daryl got Glenn killed. Negan reminded him of that every damn day. He'd use that to break him over and over again until Daryl lost all of his resolve and self-worth. Can't Rick see that he doesn't belong at Alexandria anymore?

He wants to tell him. He wants to go up to him and scream at Rick until Rick understands who Daryl is now--a killer, a pawn, a changed man. He wants to tell Rick about every single man Negan ever made him kill or hurt and tell him why he did it and how and he wants Rick to see him for what he is, for the love of god why can't he see him? Why is he still doing this and why does Maggie look at him with nothing but forgiveness? Has everyone forgotten about how Glenn died? Has everyone forgotten that it was Glenn who paid the price for Daryl acting instead of thinking?

There's something stopping him from telling him. It's the nights by the lake and Carl with the crossbow and Judith and how when he's with them it's the closest thing to contentedness he's felt, not just in the last few years, but in his whole life. The problem is that he hates himself for that, too. Taking what he doesn't deserve.

He decides that he has to leave soon. He thinks he'll go west. He’ll wait a while to leave; he'll give himself a few months so the weather gets a little better. He'll tell Rick and Carl instead of just abandoning them without a word or a clue as to where he might be. They deserve to know. He thinks about how sometimes he can't sleep unless Rick is closeby and tells himself to enjoy it while it lasts but grow the fuck up before he gets so weak that he can't make it through this life alone anymore. He's always taken pride in autonomy and if he lost that he'd lose his mind right along with it.

\-----------------

The next morning, the plan to leave seems distant and ridiculous. It was nothing more than a product of emotions that only seem to surface when the sun goes down. He thinks to himself that maybe it ain't so bad, that maybe Rick isn't pulled down by Daryl like Daryl thinks he is, but then he gets back to the Safe-Zone and those same thoughts from the night before are back. Eugene waves at him when he walks through the gates. He sees Carl on watch. He looks at the lake and the spot where he and Rick usually go on the bad nights. He sees Rick with Judith on the front porch of his house and he feels a sickening guilt and that's when he knows that he can't be in this place much longer.

\-----------------

Spring arrives, and Daryl knows the time's come for him to move on, as hard as it is. He's packed his shit and he's ready to go. All that's left now is saying goodbye. It's just a matter of figuring out how. He could talk to Rick, tell him everything face to face. But he knows that Rick would try his best to stop him. Besides, Daryl's never been as good with talking as he is with actions. So he decides to write his farewell on a piece of yellow scrap paper. He feels another wave of guilt, but reminds himself that it's best if he just lets Rick find a note tonight when he's already miles away. He writes the note, leaves it on Rick's bed, and walks out the door.

He sees Rick on his way out. He's smiling and talking to Carol. Carol being there makes everything so much harder. He waves to her and decides that's the way he's going to say thank you and goodbye. He hopes she'll understand.

He thinks of the first time he saw Rick after Negan took him, only three days after Abraham and Glenn died. He thinks of how Rick couldn’t even look at him because if he did Negan would hurt him and of how badly wanted Daryl to tell him he was okay. He remembers how Rick looked at him as he drove away and how all Daryl wanted was to give the man some peace of mind and how he would’ve done anything to get him there because of after all this time and all he’d been through he deserved some goddamned peace. He’s not sure why he thinks of that day instead of any of the other ones. The last time he saw Rick before coming back, the time Rick saw him with a gash on his cheek and almost got killed for asking if he was alright.

He gets to the front gate, throws his backpack in the passenger seat of the car, and brings the engine to life. As he drives off, he allows himself to look back at the Safe-Zone in his rearview. He finds himself missing his bike, but now isn't the time to do things like that. Now is the time to move on. He takes a right. The walls of the neighborhood vanish from the rearview, and he realizes that it's easier said than done.

\-----------------

Rick comes home that afternoon to an empty house. He sits in the kitchen and eats for a few minutes before going upstairs to his room and finding the scrap paper on his bed. He reads the name at the bottom of the paper before anything else, and it reads Daryl. He laughs quietly as he realizes he's never seen the other man's handwriting before, not once in all the years they've known each other.

He stops laughing when he reads the note.

_Rick,_

_I'm headed west towards Columbus. Don't know where I'm going to end up, don't know what's going to happen to me. But I have to leave. I don't belong in Alexandria. Not with your people not with your family not with you. I guess I need to explain why. I'm not like I used to be. Done things over the last few years that scare me. It started with Glenn. I killed him. I know you're going to say that it wasn't me who actually did it, but it was. I should've stayed down. I think about it every day._

_Negan made me kill people he wanted dead by telling me he was going to kill people here if I didn't. Maybe they were empty threats, but I didn't take chances. It got easier after a while. I've tried everything. Every single damn trick in the damn book, but I can't get past that. Point is I can't be here._

_There's a lot I have to tell you. First is thanks. You were my first real friend and you somehow made living in a world where there aren't any good endings better.  I’ll always owe you for that. Second, you have to know that I'm not the same as I used to be. Being with Negan for so long didn't make it easy for me to stay the guy you knew before. That's part of why I'm leaving. I feel like I'm lying to you. I don't deserve what you’re giving me. Third is I'm sorry. I know that this is going to look selfish from the outside, but I swear that I'm doing this for you and the people here.  This isn't easy, I know. I’m sorry for any trouble this might give you but I know you'll pull through like you always do._

_Thanks for everything you've done. I never even asked you to do any of it. I only have one favor to ask you and it's a damn cliche._

_Don't forget me Grimes. I know I won't forget you._

_\- Daryl_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for reading!! I didn't expect to get so much feedback on my first fic. Let me know what you thought, if you'd like. It'd be much appreciated.
> 
> edit: Thank you for the comments and the kudos. They're making my day <3


	3. Please Don't Leave Til Morning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thank you so much to all those who read, leave kudos, and comment. This has been a lot of fun to write and I'm so grateful for your feedback. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this last chapter. It's cute.

**III.**

Michonne finds Daryl in a car off of I68. He tries to drive off but she shoots out his back tires and gets Rick and Carol on the radio.

" _Hey, Daryl_ ," Carol says. " _Glad you're alright._ "

Daryl closes his eyes and bangs his head back against the headrest.

 _"Daryl,_ " Rick says, " _come back for a night. If you still need to leave after that, then that's fine. Just... please let us talk to you_."

"Don't wanna talk to ya."

" _Don't have to be me._ "

 _"Just go back for the damn night, Dixon,_ " Carol says, her voice suddenly stern. " _We won't leave without you._ "

Daryl sighs in resignation.

"He's in," Michonne announces.

 _"See you back at Alexandria?_ " Carol asks.

" _Yeah_ ," says Rick.

"See you there."

\-----------------

Three hours before Michonne blew out Daryl’s tires, Rick had told Carol and Michonne about the note. They sprung into action, packed what little supplies they needed, and decided that they would each stay close to specific road. They wasted no time in getting the hell out of Alexandria and onto Daryl’s trail. All Rick could think of was what could happen if they didn’t find him. The chances were slim; he was seven hours out. He could have been three hundred miles away for all any of them knew. But Rick realized what would happen, and it was just that. They _wouldn’t find him_. End of story. No more Daryl Dixon, not in Rick’s life. He’d just be a memory. One of the best ones, but a memory nonetheless. It broke his heart to think that to himself. If it was possible, Rick would have never stopped looking for Daryl, but Carl and Judith need him, and will for sometime. Not to mention the fact that a great many people look to him as a leader. It wouldn’t be possible. If faced with the choice, Rick knows which one he would make. It wouldn’t be easy, no, but he knows which one he would make. He thought maybe in a few years things would be different. Someone stronger than him would take his place, maybe his kids would be okay without him for a while. Maybe, if today didn’t work out, they’d find each other then. Maybe this whole messy shitstorm of a world would fix itself and they’d see each other again.

Rick thought of all the times Daryl saved his life and pulled him back from the edges of things he would’ve regretted, all the sacrifices he was willing to make for Rick and his family. He thought of every time he’d ever found solace in the simple fact that Daryl was there. He thinks of Daryl lying next to him by the lake and how everything seemed infinitely more beautiful and calm.

And that was when he realized how much he needs the man. Daryl is his humanity.

\-----------------

“Hey,” says Rick. He and Daryl are in the house now. It’s early in the night, but Carl and Judith are already asleep in their rooms. Sleep has come easier ever since Negan and the Saviors were taken care of.

Rick is beyond relieved that Daryl is home, even if it’s just for a night. That also terrifies him, of course, because if Daryl really does leave for good, there won't be anyone to help him with what Negan did to him. He'll never tell a soul. He'll internalize it and internalize it until he gets torn up inside. Rick has to stop Daryl from doing that to himself. He has to tell him everything that’s been on his mind since he and Carol brought him home.  

“Alright,” Daryl says.

“Why’d you go?”

“I told you, Rick. Left a damn note and everything!.”

“I know, I know,” Rick says.

“Didn’t think you’d come lookin’ for me after readin’ that. Why did you?”

Rick sighs. “I know you think you don’t belong here-”

“‘S cause I don’t.”

“-but you do. You’re family.”

“Ain’t been your family since Glenn.”

“That wasn’t your fault, okay?”

“Negan said different.”

“You’re taking his word for it?”

“They gave me pictures of him.”

“Daryl, I don’t care what you did because I _know_ you.”

“Don’t know me now.”

“I do.”

“I ain’t the same, don’t you get it?”

“You’ve changed, I know. We all would have. You may have done things you hate and I get that you think you need forgiveness for it. I’ll give it to you. I’ll give you whatever, _whatever_ , you need.”

Daryl leans against the counter. “I don’t fucking deserve it.”

“Christ, Daryl, yes you do.”

“Stop.”

“Listen to me,” Rick says sternly. “You are good. What you did with Negan doesn’t matter to me, or to Carol, Michonne, Carl, Maggie, anyone. It does not matter. You will always have a home here no matter what you did because. You. Are. Family. We need you here.”

Daryl buries his face in his hand. “Rick,” he whispers.

“Yeah.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t leave tomorrow. Please. I, uh... sorry. I just need you. I love you.”

Daryl shakes his head.  

Rick knows he can’t stop him from leaving. He can’t even try. He gave it his all, he told him his secrets and still, Daryl is looking at him, shaking his head. So Rick just says, “It’s alright. Just let me give you more supplies, and please don’t leave til morning. And will you give me some way to know you’re safe one day? I don’t know, we’ll talk about it. Maybe a radio, or if you don’t want that, a sign. One you can paint or somethin’. It’s fine if you don’t want that either, I just want to give you a way to find me, or to be found, if you ever want to.”

“Rick, I-”

“I’m not going to stop you,” Rick interrupts.

“I’m not goin’.”

Rick furrows his brows.

“I don’t wanna leave. Don’t wanna leave _you_.”

Rick crosses the room and hugs Daryl. “Thank you,” he says. “You’re gonna be okay.”

“Guess so,” Daryl says. Somehow, their foreheads touch and they’re closer to each other than they ever have been and then Daryl nods to say, _kiss me._ And that’s exactly what happens.


End file.
